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Snaking Filament Eruption

A filament (which at one point had an eerie similarity to a snake) broke away from the Sun and out into space (Nov. 1, 2014). The video covers just over three hours of activity. This kind of eruptive event is called a Hyder flare. These are filaments (elongated clouds of gases above the SunÕs surface) that erupt and cause a brightening at the Sun's surface, although no active regions are in that area. It did thrust out a cloud of particles but not towards Earth. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme UV light. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA.